wherein all the reason and philosophy of atheism is confuted, and

Chap. IV. jiot Chrtjlian Cheats, 321many diftindt and independent books, whereof Pxmander is only placedfirft. However, there was no fhadow of reafon, why the Afckpius fhouldhave fallen under the fame condemnation, nor feveral other books fuperaddedby Patricius, they being iinqueftionably diftinft from the Pa'-mander, and no figns of fpurioufnefs or baftardy difcovered in them.Much lefs ought thofe Trifmegiftick books cited by the Fathers, andnow loft, have been condemned alfo unfeen, "Wherefore, notwithftandiiigall that Cafatibon has written, there may very well be fome Hermetickor Trifmegiftick books genuine, though all of them be not fuch ithat is, according to our after-declaration, there may be fuch books, aswere really Egyptian, and not counterfeited by any Chriftian, thoughperhaps not written by Hermes Trifmegijt himfelf, nor in the Egyptianlanguage. And as it cannot well be conceived, how there fhould havebeen any counterfeit Egyptian books, had there been none at all real;fo that there were fome real and genuine, will perhaps be rendered probableby thefe following confiderations.That there was anciently, amongft the Egyptians fuch a man isThothf'fbeuth, or Taut, who, together with letters, was the firft inventor of artsand fciences, as arithmetick, geometry, aftronomy, and of the hieroglyphicklearning, (therefore calLd by the Greeks Fhrmes, and by the LatinsMercurius) cannot reafonably be denied -, it being a thing confirmed by generalfame in all ages, and by the tcftimonies not only of Sanchoniathon 'a Phenician hiftoriographer, who lived about the times of the Trojan war,and wrote a book concerning the theology of the Egyptians, and Manetho^%Sebennyta ' an Egyptian prieft, contemporary •with PioL Philadelphus ; butalfo of that grave philofopher Plato, who is faid to have fojourned thirteenyears in Egypt, that in his Philelus' fpeaks of him as the firft inventor ofletters, (who diftinguiflied betwixt vowels and confonants determining theirfeveral numbers) there calling him cither a God or divine man ; but in hisPh.cdrus * attributeth to him alfo the invention of arithmetick, geometryand aftronomy, together with fome ludicrous recreations, making hiin eithera God or dnsillOn, m^d'ot, iri^i N:>sJHja7fu tw AlyMv, ym^oi.i ru-j ly.u ^TrxXaiHvrax §£uv, K ?t) 79 omiioj to acoj o Kj i!.xXn(^tv 'Ibiu, xutm Si ovoux tm Sximvi tTvxi©sUfl- I have heard (fiiith he) that about Naucratis in Egypt, there was oneof the ancient Egyptian gods, to whom the bird Ibis was facred, as his fymhoior hieroglyphick ; the name of which daemon was Theuth. In which placet\\z philofopher fubjoins alfo an ingenious difpute betwixt this Theuth, andThamus th;n king of Egypt, concerning the convenience and inconvenienceof letters the former boafting of that invention w,- /j-vny-n; «^ (ropLX^(px^y.xy.ov,-,as a remedy for memory, and great help to wifdom, but the latter contending,that it would rather beget oblivion, by the negleft of memory, and thereforewas not lo properly fj.vr,un; as uVo.uvijo-fuf (px^y-xxov, a remedy for memory,as rtminifcence, or the recovery of things forgotten: adding, that itwould alfo weaken and enervate mens natural faculties by flugginCT them,and rather beget So^m ao'pix;, than xXrAam, a puffy conceit and opinionT t 2of'Apud Eufcb. Pi spar. Evang. Lib. I, Cap. ' P. 75.IX. p. 31, 32. *P. 356.* Apud Georg. Syncellum in Chion. p. 40.